DC Universe adds micro-transactions

By Robert Purchese Published 1 July, 2011

The first timid steps towards free-to-play?

DC Universe Online has taken one red-booted stride down the free-to-play highway by introducing micro-transactions in a Marketplace store.

There you can buy Wearables, Vault tickets, convenience items "and other fun wares" for real money - either using funds added to your PSN Wallet or by spending Station Cash.

You can access the Marketplace by opening your in-game PDA (press Escape on PC or start on PS3). Once there, select the Shopping Cart icon.

Separate PC and PS3 how-to guides will walk you through the rest.

At the moment there are only two items available at the Marketplace: Proto-Repair Bots (fix equipment on the go) and Vault Ticket Packs (allows more trips to the vault).

Five Proto-Repair Bots costs $3.99 on PS3 and 400 Station Cash on PC ($4).

Micro-transactions are, of course, the bread and butter of a free-to-play diet. That DC Universe, an MMO struggling to fly, should opt to ditch upfront and subscription fees in favour of attracting a larger audience makes jolly good sense to me.

DC Universe Online: trouble in the Batcave!

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About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 11 months ago

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  • rogueJT #1 11 months ago

    Yeah this seemed to be dead in the water from the start.

    It's amazing - hugely popular franchises with a large dedicated fan base like Star Trek, Warhammer, LOTR, Dungeons and Dragons, DC Universe, Conan the Barbarian have all tried to topple the WOW behemoth and failed completely and utterly miserably. I predict the exact same for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

    People just don't seem willing to pay a monthly fee. (WOW is of course the obvious exception here)
    Edited by rogueJT at 01/07/11 @ 17:24

  • munki83 #2 11 months ago

    Really like the game it can be fun but its pretty dead on the pc

  • riceNpea #3 11 months ago



    during the free month there were plenty of people online. unfortunately the freezing issues were so bad that it discouraged people from subscribing. even now freezing is still a big problem. it's such a shame. i was in a league and we had great fun (mostly using skype because of the terrible problems with using the game's mic channel) but ultimately one by one people drifted away.

    it's no fun raiding for a couple of hours only to lose your marks because you've frozen yet again. i feel sorry for DC. it had potential to open up MMO's to people who have never tried this genre before but technical issues have robbed it of any momentum and after a bad start now it's probably to late for it.

  • Shagsmith #4 11 months ago

    Certainly enjoyed it during the free month, absolutely isn't worth the subs fee. The servers were absolutely dead, which was a shame as it was different, and fairly decent at that.

  • bobfish09 #5 11 months ago

    SOE always said a marketplace and microtransactions were planned for DCU, they just weren't in any hurry to implement them.

    So not sure why anyone is making a big deal out of this.

  • captain_Carl #6 11 months ago

    Loved the beta and loved it during the free month. It was packed and tons of fun. After that it got pretty dead :(

  • icematt12 #7 11 months ago

    That DC Universe, an MMO struggling to fly, should opt to ditch upfront and subscription fees in favour of attracting a larger audience makes jolly good sense to me.

    And me, given how things look on the PS3 servers I use. Stability seems to have improved a lot it's just the numbers that worry me.

    Microtransactions might have been planned at the start. I always remember Ambush bug saying you can get a ticket saying you can enter the vault more often but looks like it hasn't existed yet. When in the Villan HQ Catwoman also says about a training simulator for Legends, perhaps to learn their moves and style before going to PvP.

  • ballshock #8 11 months ago

    Anyone play this?

  • The-Jack-Burton #9 11 months ago

    If it goes F2P, I'll buy the game, I had a ton of fun with the Beta

  • kentmonkey #10 11 months ago

    "Micro-transactions are, of course, the bread and butter of a free-to-play diet. That DC Universe, an MMO struggling to fly, should opt to ditch upfront and subscription fees in favour of attracting a larger audience makes jolly good sense to me. "

    They haven't though. You're assuming that they may. The above makes it sound as though they have definitely taken that approach.

    And as others have said, microtransactions have been planned since day one. I'm not saying that they won't ditch a monthly fee, but it's more unlikely than likely at this stage.

  • Murton #11 11 months ago

    Pretty much every SOE subs based MMO to date has had microtransactions for something or another. In SWG you could rename your character or move server for a small fee, EQ2 offered similar services. Why the deduction that it has to be going free just because microtransactions are making an appearance? Subs and micros aren't mutually exclusive and SOE have form in making a successful micro market on their subs based games so why not?

    @ rogueJT - I don't know, I'd attribute the failure of most of those games to straying too far away from the source material. The whole point of using established franchises is to gain their fanbase but then the developers (possibly due to publisher intervention) always ruin it for the fans by trying to cater to everyone and only end up alienating their meal tickets.

  • George-Roper #12 11 months ago

    LOL!

  • actionfitz #13 11 months ago

    as long as they dont try the Zynga route of F2P - try to cynically wallet-rape people.
    If the Micro transactions dont affect gameplay - ie flavour items etc only then i see no problem.
    My concern is that most F2P games end up costing more than a sub just to play regularly... which is why I avoid them and stick with wow.
    I am looking forward to GW2 though :)

  • Miths #14 11 months ago

    "My concern is that most F2P games end up costing more than a sub just to play regularly..."

    Yep, while the F2P concept might naturally seem like a great thing to many people - hey, it's "free" after all - many of those games wind up being a lot more expensive than a subscription based game for anyone who isn't just planning on trying it out for a few weeks, or play it infrequently (and I imagine "infrequently" may not be how most people play MMOs).

  • RipperSU #15 11 months ago

    I like how EG is running a story about how small nuggets of information lead to unfounded speculation in gaming journalism (Mercenaries 3D article). Yet, it seems here that we have an article using a small nugget of information going wild with unfounded speculation.

  • fongy #16 11 months ago

    Such a shame...
    I have PS+ and I often see "DC:o patch installed" - so I thought I'd boot it up over the w/end...
    It NEEDS more people - every server is "low population" - there was something fun about seeing loads of people running around in groups, helping out, etc.
    Now it's like 2 vast empty cities and it's gets lonely / boring fast...
    I have to say most technical issues appeared to have been fixed (sound dropping after cutscenes / freezing / etc.)
    Now make it F2P and create a marketplace whereby you can buy any / all weapons / armour - I've seen some high level people with AMAZING stuff, I'd certainly purchase a lot of it...